2017 Tokyo prefectural election explained

Election Name:	2017 Tokyo prefectural election
Country:	Tokyo
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	2013 Tokyo prefectural election
Previous Year:	2013
Next Election:	2021 Tokyo prefectural election
Next Year:	2021
Seats For Election:	All 127 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
Majority Seats:	64
Turnout:	51.28%(7.78%)^[1]
Election Date:	2 July 2017
Leader1:	Yuriko Koike
Leader Since1:	31 May 2017
Party1:	Tomin First no Kai
Last Election1:	New
Seats1:	49
Seat Change1:	49
Popular Vote1:	1,884,029
Percentage1:	33.68%
Swing1:	New
Leader2:	Hakubun Shimomura
Party2:	Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
Last Election2:	59
Seats2:	23
Seat Change2:	36
Popular Vote2:	1,260,101
Percentage2:	22.53%
Swing2:	13.51%
Leader3:	Yōsuke Takagi
Party3:	Komeito
Last Election3:	23
Seats3:	23
Seat Change3:	0
Popular Vote3:	734,697
Percentage3:	13.13%
Swing3:	0.97%
Image4:	共産
Party4:	Japanese Communist Party
Leader4:	Yoshiharu Wakabayashi
Last Election4:	17
Seats4:	19
Seat Change4:	2
Popular Vote4:	773,722
Percentage4:	13.83%
Swing4:	0.22%
Leader5:	Jin Matsubara
Party5:	Democratic Party (Japan, 2016)
Last Election5:	15
Seats5:	5
Seat Change5:	10
Popular Vote5:	385,752
Percentage5:	6.90%
Swing5:	8.34%
Image6:	ネット
Leader6:	Mitsuko Nishizaki
Party6:	Tokyo Seikatsusha Network
Last Election6:	3
Seats6:	1
Seat Change6:	2
Popular Vote6:	69,929
Percentage6:	1.25%
Swing6:	0.83%
Image7:	維新
Leader7:	Takeshi Fujimaki
Party7:	Nippon Ishin no Kai
Last Election7:	New
Seats7:	1
Seat Change7:	1
Popular Vote7:	54,016
Percentage7:	0.97%
Swing7:	New
Assembly President
Before Election:	Shigeo Kawai
Before Party:	Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
After Election:	Daisuke Ozaki
After Party:	Tomin First no Kai

Prefectural elections for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly (平成29年/2017年東京都議会議員選挙, Heisei 29-nen/2017-nen Tōkyō togikai giin senkyo, "Heisei 29/2017 election of members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly") were held on 2 July 2017. The 127 members were elected in forty-two electoral districts, seven returning single members elected by first-past-the-post, and thirty-five returning multiple members under single non-transferable vote. Four districts had their magnitude adjusted in this election to match population changes.

The results of the election persuaded Shinzo Abe to call a snap election, and led to the resignation of Renho as Democratic Party leader.

Background

LDP leader Shinzo Abe took office as Prime Minister following the 2012 general election and strengthened his position in the 2014 general election. However, Abe's government was subsequently struck by criticism for its handling of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal and controversial remarks by Defense Minister Tomomi Inada.^[2] In the meantime, Yuriko Koike won the 2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election as an independent candidate, and left the LDP in June 2017 to found a new local political party, Tomin First, to challenge the LDP in the prefectural election.^[3] At the time of the election, Koike was widely believed to be eyeing a future bid to replace Abe as prime minister.

Candidates

Party! rowspan="2"

Incumbents	Candidates
Incumbents	Previousrepresentatives	New	Total	(Women)
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)	57	49	0	11	60	(6)
	Kōmeitō (Kōmei)	22	19	0	4	23	(3)
	Japanese Communist Party (JCP)	17	11	1	25	37	(17)
	Democratic Party (DP)	7	7	6	10	23	(6)
	Tomin First no Kai (Tomin)	6	6	4	40	50	(17)
	Tokyo Seikatsusha Network (Net)	3	2	0	2	4	(4)
	Nippon Ishin no Kai (Ishin)	1	1	1	2	4	(1)
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	0	0	0	1	1	(1)
	Other	0	0	1	16	17	(4)
	Independent	13	11	4	25	40	(6)
Total		126(1 vacancy)	106	17	136	259	(65)

Results

With counting almost complete, the seat distribution was as follows:^{[4] [5] [6]}

• Supporters of Yuriko Koike won 79 seats in total: 49 by Tomin First no Kai, 23 by Kōmeitō, 1 by the Seikatsusha Net, and 6 by independents endorsed by Tomin;
• The LDP, previously the largest party, fell to 23 seats, their worst-ever result (their worst scores had previously been 38 seats, in the 1965 and 2009 elections);
• The Communist Party won 19 seats, improving further on their strong 2013 result;
• The DP was reduced to five seats and the single Ishin no Kai incumbent defended his seat.

Months after the Tokyo prefectural election, Abe called a snap general election for October 2017, and Koike established the new Kibo no To party to challenge the LDP nationally.

By district

District! rowspan="2"

of seats	Total candidates	Elected/Candidates^Endorsements
LDP		Kōmei	JCP	DP	Tomin	Net	Ishin	SDP	Other	Ind.
Chiyoda	1	4	0/1^Kokoro				1/1^Kōmei				0/1	0/1^JCP
Chūō	1	5	0/1^Kokoro				1/1^Kōmei				0/1	0/2^1×JCP
Minato	2	6	1/2^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei				0/1	0/1^Tomin
Shinjuku	4	7	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1	1/1^Net					0/1
Bunkyō	2	3	1/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei
Taitō	2	5	0/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei					1^Kōmei&Tomin/2
Sumida	3	5	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	0/1		1/1
Kōtō	4	9	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1	1/1				0/1	0/2^1×Tomin
Shinagawa	4	7	0/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP&Net	2/2
Meguro	3	5	0/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1		1/1^Net
Ōta	8	15	2/3^Kokoro	2/2^Tomin	1/2	0/1^LP&Net	2/2		1/1		0/1	0/3
Setagaya	8	18	3/3^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	1/1^LP	2/2	0/1^DP	0/1	0/1^LP	0/2	0/5
Shibuya	2	5	0/1^Kokoro		0/1	0/1^LP	1/1^Kōmei					1/1^Kōmei&Tomin
Nakano	3 (-1)	6	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	0/1	1/1^LP&Net	1/1				0/1
Suginami	6	12	2/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/2^LP	2/2	0/1^DP			0/2	0/1
Toshima	3	5	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP	1/1
Kita	3 (-1)	5	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1^LP	0/1^LP	1/1
Arakawa	2	7	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	0/1						0/1	1^Tomin/3
Itabashi	5	10	0/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	1/1^LP&Net	2/2				0/1	0/2
Nerima	6	10	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	1/2^LP	2/2	0/1^DP			0/1
Adachi	6	9	1/2^Kokoro	2/2^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP	2/2^1×Net		0/1
Katsushika	4	8	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP&Net	1/1				0/2
Edogawa	5	6	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1		2/2
Hachiōji	5	9	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP&Net	2/2				0/1	0/1
Tachikawa	2	4	1/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei					0/1^Tomin
Musashino	1	3	0/1^Kokoro			0/1^LP&Net	1/1^Kōmei
Mitaka	2	4	0/1^Kokoro		0/1	1/1^LP&Net	1/1^Kōmei
Ōme	1	3	0/1^Kokoro				1/1^Kōmei&Net					0/1^JCP
Fuchū	2	4	0/1^Kokoro		0/1		2/2^Kōmei&1×Net
Akishima	1	3	0/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei&Net
Machida	4 (+1)	8	1/2^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP&Net	1/1		0/1		0/1
Koganei	1	5	0/1^Kokoro				1/1^Kōmei					0/3^1×JCP
Kodaira	2	4	1/1^Kokoro		0/1	0/1^LP&Net	1/1^Kōmei
Hino	2	4	1/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei&Net					0/1
Nishi-Tōkyō	2	4	0/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei					1/1^Tomin
Nishi-Tama	2	4	1/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei&Net					0/1^Tomin&Net
Minami-Tama	2	5	0/1^Kokoro		0/1		1/1^Kōmei&Net					1^Tomin/2
Kita-Tama 1	3	6	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1	0/1^LP	1/1					0/1
Kita-Tama 2	2	4	0/1^Kokoro			0/1^LP	1/1^Kōmei	1/1^JCP, DP, Tomin
Kita-Tama 3	3 (+1)	6	0/1^Kokoro	1/1^Tomin	1/1							1^Tomin&Net/3
Kita-Tama 4	2	4	0/1^Kokoro		1/1		1/1^Kōmei					0/1^Tomin&Net
Islands	1	3	1/1^Kokoro		0/1		0/1^Kōmei
Total	127	259	23/60	23/23	19/37	5/23	49/50	1/4	1/4	0/1	0/17	6^Tomin/40

Most districts are coterminous with a municipality (-ku/-shi/-chō/-son) of the same name. The following districts comprise multiple municipalities:

• Nishi-Tama ("West Tama“; follows the original boundaries of the district of the same name, except Ōme): Fussa, Hamura, Akiruno, Hinohara, Hinode, Mizuho, Okutama
• Minami-Tama ("South Tama“; follows the boundaries of the former district of the same name): Tama, Inagi
• Kita-Tama dai-1 ("North Tama #1“; follows the boundaries of the former Kitatama district): Higashi-Murayama, Higashi-Yamato, Musashi-Murayama
• Kita-Tama dai-2 ("North Tama #2“): Kokubunji, Kunitachi
• Kita-Tama dai-3 ("North Tama #3“): Chōfu, Komae
• Kita-Tama dai-4 ("North Tama #4“): Kiyose, Higashi-Kurume
• Islands: Aogashima, Hachijō, Mikurajima, Miyake, Ogasawara, Kōzushima, Niijima, Ōshima, Toshima

Same-day elections

On the same day, the mayoral election in Kokubunji, Tokyo returned incumbent Kunio Izawa, backed by LDP and Komeito, against center-left supported (DP, JCP, LP, SDP, Net) former deputy mayor Michio Higuchi.^{[7] [8] [9]} Another prefectural election on July 2 was the gubernatorial election in Hyōgo.^[10]

External links

• Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Secretariat of the election administration commission: Turnout and Results of the 2017 Metropolitan Assembly election (pdf/excel)

Notes and References

1. Web site: LDP, Komeito fail to win majority in Tokyo assembly. 2021-07-05. 2021-07-05. The Mainichi Shimbun. en. 2021-08-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20210821194926/https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210704/p2g/00m/0na/037000c. dead.
2. News: A local election in Tokyo may have just changed Japanese politics. 2017-07-02. Los Angeles Times. 2017-10-09. en-US. 0458-3035.
3. News: Tokyo Voters’ Rebuke Signals Doubt About Shinzo Abe’s Future. Rich. Motoko. 2017-07-03. The New York Times. 2017-10-09. en-US. 0362-4331.
4. [NHK]
5. [Yomiuri Shimbun]
6. [Asahi Shimbun]
7. Tokyo Metropolitan election commission: 2017 electoral calendar of national, prefectural/Metropolitan and municipal elections in Tokyo
8. [Mainichi Shimbun]
9. Kokubunji City electoral commission: On the 2 July 2017 elections of Metropolitan assembly members and city mayor, Mayoral election result
10. The Mainichi [English online edition of the [[Mainichi Shimbun]]], July 3, 2017: Incumbent Ido secures 5th term as Hyogo governor